


Can you hear me?

by happyslipper



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Bullying, Character Study, Deaf Character, Disability, M/M, People Watching, Physical Disability, Self-Reflection, Singing, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:21:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25697998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happyslipper/pseuds/happyslipper
Summary: Taeyong loved to sing, but he lost his hearing. When he was transferred to another school after a long recovery, his classmate Jung Jaehyun began to bully him. But something changed when he found Taeyong singing in the music class of their school.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Lee Taeyong
Kudos: 31





	Can you hear me?

**Author's Note:**

> It is my first work in English so please don't judge it strictly.
> 
> And I'm SO thankful to [porcelainbae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/porcelainbae) for beta reading this work ❤❤❤ You are so amazing!!!

Taeyong loved music, loved singing. Everyone told him that he had a great talent.

He lost his hearing after a car accident. The car in which he was traveling with his parents turned over and his eardrums were torn. It was a hard blow for him. It took him two years to recover from all the injuries and traumas and now he’s back to school feeling fine except that now he’s deaf.

The school he went to was different than the one he used to go before the accident. He didn’t want to go back to there ever again because he knew people would pity him now, so what a group of strangers could think of him mattered less than what a group of his buddies would do. He was even ready to be bullied at the new place but that was still better for him, he thought.

But the truth is that Taeyong didn’t know that he’s going to face a living nightmare.

His new classmates weren’t nice at all. He expected that they would make some jokes on him and stuff because he has a defect. But at first no one did until one of them started. His name was Jaehyun, he was the leader of the class.The more he teased him, the more people supported him in that.

Taeyong was okay with that. He could bear it because he had no choice, but every ‘joke’ was pushing him harder into depression so after six month of this hell he seemed to break down. He thought that the whole school was laughing at him not only his class. But though his patience was at its limit he tried to endure all the mockery that people threw in his direction.

His first breakdown happened on the Valentine’s day. Jaehyun sat next to him and gave a note. It said “I’ve got something to you. It’s your lucky day. And my birthday actually. And this is the exact reason why today is lucky for you”. Taeyong lifted his head to look at the boy next to him. He was holding one earphone and his hand giving it to Lee and the other one was in his ear. His face was holding mean smirk kind of saying “why won’t you take my _peace sign?_ I’m being nice to you”. But it wasn’t a peace sign. Not for Taeyong who’s damn _deaf_.

His face grimaced with all the pain he felt at that moment. It was the worst ‘joke’ ever made on him. Tears ran down on his cheeks, his eye blurred and he ran out from the class wiping the water from his face away.

Though Taeyong had lost his opportunity to hear anything, his passion to music was still with him. He loved to stay at the music class and just sing even with no hearing himself.

He didn’t know how his voice sounded, yet he continued to come to there. He loved straining the ligaments and feeling the vibrations of the sounds he make that were filling his larynx. Music took all his pain and gave nothing but pleasure. The only thing that was important for Taeyong when he sang was how good it felt. This music class was his sanctuary in school.

Jaehyun once found someone singing in there. He wondered at first who could it be but then he saw Taeyong and the fact that younger could sing and do it that beautiful made him stay and watch boy acting. Lee didn’t see him because he hid behind the door. And that’s what Jaehyun felt very happy with.

At the first he didn’t feel nothing but amazement and curiosity. But the sound of the boy’s voice stuck in his head like it was glued. It made him want to hear it again and again, so once he just gave up and secretly followed him to the music class after the lessons ended. His heart, _and probably his mind_ , went crazy as soon as the younger boy opened his mouth and let out the first sound. Jaehyun’s face was vermilion, his heart was beating so fast he never thought something like that could happen. He was listening to Taeyong with his mouth open. It felt like he was drinking water after a week spent in desert. So thirsty to his voice. Lee stopped soon but the older guy didn’t immediately notice that, so when he saw through the door slit as the boy makes his way to the door he was standing behind, he ran away so the boy couldn’t know he was watching him.

Jaehyun felt sick. Sick with Taeyong’s voice that became to sound even louder inside his head since last time he heard it. That what made him stalk the younger one to the music class after their lessons are over. He became addicted to this special sound and that’s what made him obsessed with the boy himself. The only thing he was staring at in the class was Taeyong, the only one he was thinking about before going to bed was Taeyong, the only thing, the only _one_ , he _really_ wanted was Taeyong.

As you might have guessed Jung stopped bullying him. It happened as soon as he heard him singing for the first time. He just ignored him pretending that he didn’t ever exister for him. That was a relief for Lee. But once, when Taeyong didn’t get what teacher is talking about, neither the writings on the blackboard nor lip reading,it somehow drove Jaehyun crazy so he yelled at him.

“Stop pretending that you can’t hear! I know you can! I heard you can s—”. He stared at younger boy with annoyance trying to figure out why does he pretend to be deaf.

Taeyong felt nothing but shock and confusion by the older boy’s reaction. What did he do wrong? Why did he yelled at him?

Jaehyun continued to come to listen to Lee but except of just enjoying his voice he was also trying to understand his behavior. _Why does he lie?_ ,he asked himself this question thousand times but the answer was still nowhere near.

He went there that day too. Jung stood outside the door as usual,and nothing was strange until Taeyong stopped singing and started crying and screaming instead. He looked shocked and while making that noise he was touching his throat and plugging his ears with fingers.

The older boy ran up to him worrying but when Lee saw him he got scared and went further from him.

“Hey, are you okay? Please, don’t be scared, I don’t wanna hurt you. I’ve just… I saw you crying and screaming so I’m… I’m just worried. Are you okay?” Jaehyun spoke slow and clearly and loud enough so Taeyong could read his lips or maybe _hear him_. And he did.

“I can hear you,” he whispered silently.

“What?”

“I can hear you!” he screamed on the top of his voice so it was loud enough even for him.

He still couldn’t hear things good enough but he heard something. Even though that ‘something’ needed to be loud to be heard.

“You… You do?” Jaehyun was really surprised with that too.

Though he thought that Taeyong lied that he’s deaf he wasn’t sure in that at all. Because it had no sense since he was bullied by that, _bullied by him too._ There’s no way he did that to get some attention because when he made fun of him with that earphone couple of months ago Lee looked hurted. So he guessed that the boy sang with no hearing himself.

“Yes!” the boy yelled it still being dread by the second guy.

Tears poured out of Jaehyun’s eyes and that scared Taeyong even more.

“I’m so happy!” he said really loud.

“What? Why?” Taeyong was confused. Why would that man be happy for him? Doesn’t that mean that he has no reason to bully him anymore? Though he didn’t since February but still…

“Well… I…” Jaehyun forgot that he shouldn’t have any reason to be happy for him too. “I’ve heard you singing,” he confessed. “It is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. Your voice…”

“What?” he confused Taeyong even harder than earlier.

“I’m so— No, I’m not sorry about that. I’m actually really glad I did. But I’m sorry about bullying you and making fun of you. That wasn’t nice of me at all. That was mean. So I’m sorry. I’m really, _really_ sorry Taeyong. I don’t know why but your voice just caught me up. I couldn’t think about anything else since I’ve heard it. And then all my thoughts were full of you. I’ve started thinking that you don’t deserve all this shit I poured out on you. So I stopped. But then I started to think that you were just _pretended_ to be deaf, because you still can sing, you know. But now I’m sure you didn’t so I’m sorry. Please, forgive me for all that hell you had to go through because of me,” Jaehyun shouted out loud.

“Wow, I’m… I didn’t expect that the first thing I’ll hear would be that. But… thank you, I guess? I’m not sure if I’ve heard everything right and I’m not sure if you’re not making fun of me _again_ , but I… forgive you Jung Jaehyun. That’s okay if you are serious right now and if you will be nice to me in the future,” Taeyong said.

“I’m not!” the older boy responded quickly. “I really like you— I mean your voice! I mean I like you too but— Sorry,” Jaehyun’s cheeks blushed while Taeyong was laughing on him.

“You are funny!” he yelled. “But you are still weird. I can’t just trust you with the words you said to me now. At least because I found out I’m not deaf only fifteen minutes ago”

“I know. But can I try to become friends with you?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Thanks. But could you tell me how do you sing without hearing yourself? And what happened now that you could even hear yourself?” Jaehyun was staring at him with curiosity on his face.

“Well… You don’t need to hear yourself to sing. You only need to hear yourself to hit the right notes. But I don’t care about it, I just needed to scream out all the pain I get. So now when I’ve sang very loud, I guess you’ve heard that too, I heard myself. I thought that was an accident and I misheard but then I’ve tried screaming loudly again and I’ve heard myself again too. This is a miracle, Jaehyun. So don’t even try to ruin my life again. I’m tired of yelling, that’s all,” Taeyong said still on the high voice.

“I see. I won’t do that ever again. I’m really happy for you, I’m not lying. So, please, can you give me a chance? I’ll give you my number so you can call me or just ignore it. But I want to conquer your trust, Taeyong. I will prove myself, I promise. So please, give me a chance. Nod if you will.”

And Taeyong nods. It’s not easy for him to trust Jaehyun, the one who made his rough life a living hell but it’s just one single chance and if the older will lose him he won’t get another one anymore so he decides to risk. Yet it won’t be easy for Jaehyun too. Conquering the younger’s trust will be an ordeal but he wants pass it to bad to give up.


End file.
